It’s been a busy week for Apple. Tuesday brought new chips, Mac minis and MacBook Pros, and Wednesday brought the return of the full-size HomePod, with similar design and features to the original model as well as the same price of $299, or so. two years after his termination.
And when you dig into it, things get even weirder. The new HomePod is actually quite different from the original model, but in subtle and confusing ways that won’t be so noticeable to anyone buying one. Here are five facts about the new HomePod that have us scratching our heads:
The design is not exactly the same
At first glance (and second and third), the 2nd generation HomePod appears to be identical to the original model. It h as the same circular body, mesh exterior and screen, but there are slight differences. On the one hand, it is 4 mm shorter and 200 grams lighter. The top screen is larger, slightly recessed and now takes up the entire surface. The “seamless mesh fabric” of the original model is now an “acoustically transparent mesh fabric” and stretches a bit more on top, and Midnight has replaced Space Grey. It won’t make a visual difference unless you’re comparing a new and an old side-by-side, and it seems strange that Apple went to the trouble of redesigning the HomePod in such a modest way.
You can’t create a stereo pair with a 1st-gen HomePod
One of the best features of HomePod is its ability to create a stereo pair that “plays every channel in perfect harmony, creating a wider, more immersive soundstage than traditional stereo speakers.” It’s not a new feature, but there is a catch: you can’t pair a new HomePod with an old one. For a stereo pair to work, you’ll need two of the same HomePods: a 1st-gen with a 1st-gen; mini with a mini; 2nd generation with a 2nd generation. Makes sense since the two have different specs, but it would certainly have been nice for Apple to find a way to make the two play well together.
Foundry
It uses an Apple Watch chip
The original HomePod used Apple’s A8 processor, which debuted in the iPhone 6 a few years earlier, as the “brains behind advanced audio innovations”. When the HomePod mini arrived a few years later, Apple used the S5 chip from an Apple Watch Series 5 to “get big sound out of such a compact design.” The 2nd generation HomePod also uses an Apple Watch chip, the S7 processor from the Apple Watch Series 7, “to deliver even more advanced computing sound.” That’s all well and good, but it’s hard not to think that an A12 or A13 would offer some durability.
It still has an integrated power cable
One of the biggest shortcomings of the original HomePod was the built-in power cable, mostly because people naturally tried to disconnect it and sometimes ended up damaging their speakers. It’s possible that Apple changed the connector to prevent this from happening, but according to the photos, the HomePod still has the same power cable permanently attached to the back of the device. A switch to a magnetic connector like the 24-inch iMac would have been a nice improvement.
The new HomePod may look identical to the old one, but it’s actually a little different.
Foundry
It supports slower Wi-Fi
It’s kind of weird that the new HomePod still has Bluetooth 5 instead of 5.3 (as found on new Macs and iPhones), but it actually has slower Wi-Fi than the original model. According to the tech specs, the first HomePod supported 802.11ac, better known as Wi-Fi 5, while the new HomePod uses Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n). It might be too much to ask for Wi-Fi 6E when the newer iPhones don’t even support it, but we’re surprised to see the new HomePod using a Wi-Fi standard as old as the iPhone 4.
Audio specs seem lower
Here’s the weirdest thing: Based on the audio specs, the new HomePod isn’t as good as the original model. While it “surely offers next-level acoustics” as Apple claims, a quick spec comparison shows two fewer horn tweeters (five vs. seven) and microphones (four vs. six). Of course, not all speakers and microphones are made equal, and audio processing matters a lot. It’s entirely possible Apple could get equal or better sound with fewer speakers and microphones, but it’s odd that after two years the old HomePod is superior to the new one on paper.
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